Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters M-70 Why so few...

M700 is about a 1986. On its 3rd stock, 2nd bottom metal and don't know how many scopes and rings.Original barrel. Round count is approximately 3500. Still waiting for the bolt handle to fall off and the extractor to fail. Usually will run roughshod over the X-bolt at the range. Fortunately I have a BACO M70 as backup for the 700 when it fails. Still waiting and waiting......

My post should have read..
"The 700 gets bagged on for the safety issue, yet the model 70 rarely gets bagged on for having no gas handling ability.
FWIW I own both 700's and 70's."

BWalker,

Gotcha! Thanks for the clarification.

John

I am almost ashamed to say I do not own either a model 70 or Model 700 among my bolt actions. I must admit I am looking for a model 70 featherweight in 7x57 caliber. My current bolt rifles are a CZ 550, a ruger M77 MKII, a Ruger American, and a Mannlicher Schoenauer 1905. I had a pre 64 Model 70 in 243 but did not care for the caliber as I developed a preference for medium bores.

From my experience, the R700 is far more accurate or can be made far more accurate. Both have “hunting” accuracy, but the R700 is more accurate. Thus they are more desirable to many people. And the push feed vs CRF is a non issue, unless you’re after dangerous game and then, how much of an issue is push feed, really?
And I like the R700 because there are more customizing options. Fire suit on.

My Model 7 blew a primer, sent me to the eye Dr, scratched cornea. My son felt the gas escape five feet behind me. I typically wear glasses to shoot at the range, I somehow didn't that day.

One reason I started to prefer CRF (I have others that aren't) is I was deer hunting with a PF Winchester and tried to load it silently behind a tree so the deer I was after wouldn't see or hear me. I had the rifle pointed straight up and when I started to push the round up into the chamber it fell out and hit the rocky ground scaring off the deer. So I figured it wasn't just dangerous game they were useful for.

I have had pierced primers with a 700 varmint rig and didn't even know it until I seen the empty case. Granted this isn't s full on blown primer.

257Bob,

That's no good!

I've blown primers in both 700s and one 722. They blew so much there wasn't any trace of the primer isefl, and once I got the bolt open the case had to be pried out of the bolt-face with pliers. Which makes me wonder if there's something different about the Model 7. Have only owned one--actually my wife did, but only briefly, so am not nearly as familiar with it as the 700/722.

Depending on how the rifle is oriented, all PF's I'm familiar with can't be loaded slowly. Work the bolt with authority, then a M700 can be cycled even with the rifle upside down.

You're killing me here Jorge.......




One of the strengths of the Walker trigger is that it's eminently adjustable. The downfall of the Walker trigger is that it's eminently adjustable by idjits. And it's also quite helpful to keep triggers clean, and with the M700's popularity there are plenty of owners out there who have never taken the stock off of their 50 year old M700 to clean it.

Bolt handles are prone to come off when beat on to open the action--again, because of it's popularity, there probably have been more overloads shot in M700's than there are M70's, period.

Of the 10's of thousands of rounds I have shot through M700's I've never had an extractor break, nor bolt handle come off, and the two used M700's that would follow down upon closing the bolt, both triggers had been messed with--in particular the sear engagement. One of those rifles I bought here on the 'fire. Needless to say I immediately adjusted the sear engagements back to factory specs.




Most of my M700's lock the bolt.

Of course, any M700 produced after 1999 would have to have the slot machined in the bolt to accept the old style safety lever. For M700's produced prior, all a guy needs is the correct safety lever.

Thank you JorgeI for your contributions - well said .

I must confess to being unaware of all the good features of the Pre 64 Model 70 and bought my 1953 M70 FWT .308 used on the recommendation of a hunting friend. I remember paying less than $100 then and adding a 4 power scope (still works) and being disappointed when I could shoot groups no smaller than 5/8 inch with factory or handloads. So, again based upon good advice, I forgot about little groups and went hunting. After 40+ years and untold critters, it still is my meat-in-the-pot rifle. Recent Pronghorn - one shot at 230 yards and - Bang flop!

Cannot argue with what you wrote. But Sub-MOA is easily attained with the 70s, it's good enough for me. No issues with non-CRF rifles either. But I simply cannot get past the notion one needs a rubber band to secure the bolt in place because the safety (which in and of itself is an issue) will not lock the bolt.

The most accurate rifle I have is a Winchester M70 Classic Stainless from circa 1992.
I do retain 2 Remington M700 safe queens because they are almost as accurate as my M70.
The tiny sheetmetal extractor that shaves brass and clogs up the tiny little plunger ejector is why I got rid of others and never give an M700 a second glance.

Near Manufacturing in Alberta Canada makes an outstanding Picatinny rail for M70 LA & SA,
they even have one for the 0.330" hole spacing on the rear of the .375 H&H-length "Express" action.

Here is an old site that will give you a good telephone number to call Richard Near.
He has a newer site, which I do not recall, but he can tell you Nearly anything you might want to know:

http://nearmfg.com/index.html

The recoil stop on the bottom of this M70 LA Picatinny is a super feature.
My NEAR deserves another .458 WM+ project.
This one has a 25-MOA tilt, they can be custom-ordered with up to 75-MOA tilt:









Matte stainless steel or nitride coated matte black stainless steel.
All the same steel, you pay 10 bucks more in USD for the black coating.

Near supplied 10,000 of those bases for the FN/SC/Portugal tactical-outfitted/police/military M70 Winchesters.

Don't feel too bad. My only Winchester bolt guns are 54s and the only Remy bolt gun I own is a sporterized 03A3.

Plenty of Mausers, though.

That and our current government using Covid to create needy sheeple and a national debt that will will create a tax burden that will crush those that actually work for a living.

Yep--and even the 98 Mauser, in many ways still the best CRF action, works best when worked briskly.

Dunno why somebody would expect a PF rifle to hold the cartridge in the chamber with the barrel pointed UP, without having the bolt close behind. I have loaded a lot of PF rifles more-or-less silently by pointing the muzzle DOWN, sliding a cartridge in the chamber, and slowly closing the bolt.

Your lack of experience with 700/721/722 rifles is showing again. The safeties DID lock the bolt down until 1982, when stupid people who apparently believed every round had to be run entirely into the chamber to empty the magazine started suing Remington--because they violated one of the basic rules of firearms safety, pointing a loaded rifle at objects they didn't want to shoot.

The Remington safety DID lock the bolt down for 35 years, from 1947 when the 721/722 appeared to 1982. I bought my first of several 700s in the 1970s--and half of the 700/722s I own lock the bolts down. So for approximately half the life of the 700/721/722 the safety DID lock the bolt..

Granted, the M70 safety allows the action to be opened with the safety on, by putting it in the middle position. But since the post-64 M70 was introduced both the PF and CRF versions have NOT allowed the rifle to fire when somebody put the safety in the middle position, anticipating having to push it forward when hunting dangerous game. This happens when the bolt-handle gets raised SLIGHTLY--and it can even happen with pre-64s. This is one disadvantage of the very long push-forward required with the pre-'64 type safety.

Which is why I prefer the 3-postion safety on CZ 550s (sadly discontinued) to the M70 type. The movement required is FAR less--and also locks the firing pin back, instead of just blocking the trigger. But so many hunters are convinced of the advantages of the pre-'64 safety they spend a lot of money converting 550s to pre-'64 safeties--when the factory safety was superior.

Nice rifle!

I also have a pre-'64 Featherweight .308 made in 1953. It shoot VERY well, about like yours does.

But it didn't until I modified the bedding. The bedding was unaltered from the factory when I bought it, and it grouped a lot like most of he early reviews reported, with groups averaging 2-3", and sometimes larger. But I free-floated the barrel by inserting thin spacers under the front end of the action, just behind the recoil lug--and then it started shooting!

The scope, by the way, is a steel El Paso K4 Weaver, which is found on the Campfire classifieds. It works very well.